


cat's in the cradle

by leias_left_hair_bun



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pregnancy, also i live in fear of tumblr deleting my account randomly, just - a lot of angst, knack being a good brother (': and bracer being Sad bc apparently i like to hurt him /:, oh and i almost forgot, self indulgent clone content that i may as well post here cause bracer's in two of my other fics :D, so i want to keep all my writing here as well, that's the main reason if i'm honest XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29140842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leias_left_hair_bun/pseuds/leias_left_hair_bun
Summary: after saving a brother's life in the operating room, bracer finds himself in a cell awaiting a court martial(this is for a prompt from the repcomm discord server; @alderaani suggested “clone boi staring at a gift on a bad mission + wondering if he will ever see if the giver again")
Kudos: 13





	cat's in the cradle

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is truly and actually just self-indulgent oc content from me; if you've read my other fics you'll know bracer is a medic in the coruscant guard

Bracer supposed he should be grateful that he hadn’t been carted off to the detention center on Coruscant - not yet, at least - to be cursed and jeered at by the various scum of the galaxy. He’d heard the stories. Not many clones were sent there and if so, it was only to hold them for a few days before their executions. They never made it that long, though.

All in all, things could be worse, Bracer thought. He might not even get the death sentence that was a court-martial if his commander chose not to report him, as faint a hope as that was.

A knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts and he shook himself a little.

“You’ll have to open the door yourself, _vod_ ,” he called.

He managed to plaster a smile onto his face just as the locking mechanism whirred and the door slid open. The man on the other side of it hesitated for a moment.

“This used to be a closet or somethin’?” he asked.

Bracer just laughed and scooted closer to the wall, making room for his friend to sit down. Closing the door again, Knack squeezed next to Bracer and removed his helmet, rolling his neck and accidentally banging his head against the wall in the process.

“Careful,” Bracer said, ignoring Knack’s loud curse. “Did the boys let you bring it in?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Knack grumbled. He reached into his belt pouch with some difficulty and extracted a folded piece of flimsi. “They didn’t put up a fuss at all. To be frank with you, _vod_ , you could probably just walk outta here; no one’s happy about this.”

“Yeah?” Bracer took the flimsi, nearly dropping it - either the cold or the binders were numbing his fingers - before settling back into his corner of the small room. “Wish ol’ Fox felt that way.”

Knack frowned. “I’m sure he does, but he’s gotta follow the rules.”

That was, unfortunately, true. The smile slid off of Bracer’s face as the spark of hope he’d been clinging to went out. Knack noticed, of course.

“He might figure out a loophole, though. You saved a man’s life; the Commander always tries to make that count for something.”

“Didn’t save that 501st man, did it?”

Both men fell silent for a moment at the memory. According to the official statements that Commander Thorn had told them about, the 501st trooper had been forced to shoot a traitorous general and, most likely, saved the lives of his entire battalion in doing so. The story had spread like wildfire and though the trooper had been quietly executed the same day he was delivered to Coruscant, his actions had inspired many a toast among the Guard for the last few weeks.

“D’you want me to tell Aisolda?” Knack finally said. “I don’t know if I can get her somewhere you two can talk, but I can at least make sure you two see each other.”

Swallowing down the lump that rose in his throat at the thought, Bracer tried to make his shrug look casual. “If it comes to that.”

“Okayyy.” Knack frowned. “You don’t have to pretend around me, _vod_. How long have we worked in the medbay together, huh? I know you better than that.”

Bracer made to respond, but before he could do so, the commlink on Knack’s vambrace started beeping frantically. Cursing under his breath, Knack twisted his arm to get to it.

“I gotta go,” he started.

“It’s fine.” Bracer broke in. “It’s fine, just - take care of the boys for me, yeah? And - thanks for bein’ willing to - to try to bring her here.”

“No problem,” Knack said. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed I don’t have to.”

He stood and banged on the door, throwing an encouraging smile over his shoulder. As soon as the guards had let Knack out and Bracer had his little cell to himself again, he carefully unfolded the flimsi.

Looking at it, he found himself feeling nothing but regret for his actions. Beating up that nat-born surgeon may have saved a brother’s life, but now the charges against him were going to cost him this. He’d risked everything, sacrificed everything for it. Lately, he and Aisolda had spent almost every precious minute he managed to steal for her talking about and preparing for it, and Bracer felt another wave of guilt wash over him as the memory of his wife’s hopeful face came to his mind.

_“This war will surely be over soon,”_ she’d said, “ _I’ve a feeling things are coming to an end. And we’ll be able to do this together.”_

  
_“We’ll do it together, war or no war,”_ he’d said, and he’d believed it at the time.

Bracer ran his fingers over the grainy image, trying to recall the feeling of his unborn daughter kicking against his hand the last time he’d been at Aisolda’s apartment. His wife had given him the sonogram with one of her usual radiant smiles and told him to keep it by his heart so he’d have a constant reminder of the both of them.

“Don’t need a piece of filmsi for that, _ad’ika_ ,” Bracer whispered. “I hope I get to meet you, but if not, keep your mother safe for me, okay?”


End file.
